Tuesday, July 19, 2011

U2: With Or Without You



Now playing on the cafe sound system.

Plotting To Go To Many Events

I might be waking a little late to summer, but I think now I am getting in a mood to go to many, many events in the city. The primary focus is going to be on free music events. And I think I intend to go also to as many tech events as possible. If I can grab some consulting gigs at some of those events I might say, like James Bond said when asked, business or pleasure.

"Hopefully both."






What is the best way to locate the music events in town?

A trip or two to Coney Island is also due. I am city.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Matt Damon: A Real Life Hero

Robin Hood: My German Nickname
Enemy Of The State
The Google/Facebook Of Microfinance



US Royalty



Walking On Water



(Via Joshua Kushner)

Women's World Cup Final




India Beats Sri Lanka To Win Cricket World Cup
World Cup: Spain Deserved To Win

Prax

Prakash and I went to the same high school in Kathmandu, and later the same college in America. He hails from the mythical Dolpo region of Nepal: much of it is behind the Himalayas. Here he is seen with his wife Chas. They have a house in St. Louis, I've been.


Australian Woes
Kathmandu Woes

Cutting Crew: Just Died In Your Arms Tonight





Now playing on the sound system at the cafe.

"It Was A Nigger!"



Entertainment Weekly: Rosewood (1997)
In 1923, the residents of Rosewood, a tranquil all-black agrarian village in central Florida, bask in their hard-toiling prosperity. Several generations removed from slavery, they have farms, businesses, a community. They have freedom — or, at least, a hermetic approximation of it. For it's a freedom they can share only with one another. In the adjacent, comparatively poor all-white town of Sumner, the citizens look at Rosewood with suspicion and envy. The very power of American upward mobility has shaken the firmament of Dixie — its racial-social hierarchy. ...... When one of the whites gets beaten up by her extramarital lover, she's so flooded with rage and guilt that her hysteria explodes like shrapnel at the most convenient available target. ''It was a nigger!'' she wails. There are rumors of a recently escaped black convict, and with this mythical culprit in mind, the men of Sumner form a lynch mob. They never do locate the suspect, but in a sense they start to see him everywhere — in the face of any innocent black man who knows nothing of the crime. Out for ''justice,'' the mob consumes its own purpose, becoming an end in itself, a jamboree of lynching, shooting, burning, slaughter.
Little Flickers Of Racism
Tim Berners-Lee: The Internet Is Not A Country
Race, Gender, Tech
Caro, Get Off The Summit,That's A Volcano
Caroline McCarthy On Gender
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Little Flickers Of Racism


Those little flickers of racism matter. To say they don't matter to a group dynamics guy like me is to suggest software bugs are just fine, and bad design is okay. No, it's not.

Race, Gender, Tech

I plot to go into the red circle in this diagram from the tech angle. And for someone of such ambitions the flickers of racism matter even more. They are bread and butter. That is extra true of flickers of sexism, the obvious kind and the internalized kind, both, especially the internalized kind. Women with advanced degrees of internalized sexism also tend to be the more racist kind.

My Web Diagram

When I meet early stage entrepreneurs in town, one way I gauge how far they might go is by trying to figure out how much of a post-ISMs individual they are.

Rudiments Of A Corporate Culture
Third World Guy
Web 5.0: Face Time

The world of physics felt pretty much complete and all set and done when Einstein showed up. But then he noticed light rays bent near the Sun, and based on that one flicker he turned the world of physics upside down. Innovation happens at the edges. The abandoned petri dish is where the magic is at. Little flickers of racism are fascinating like that.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

+1: Turning Search Results Into Status Updates

Image representing Google as depicted in Crunc...Image via CrunchBaseThat plus one button (+1) might be Google's ultimate master stroke in the social space, it might not be Google Plus. Search continues to be huge. People search. That is what the web is all about. Otherwise we already had the water cooler crowds. The web liberated us from the confines of geography. People want to go online and search far and wide.

Before the +1 button the search results belonged to Google. Searching was a spectator sport. Now Google has allowed us to participate. We have become part of the secret sauce Google algorithms. We change the search results just as we consume them.

But this is just a start. I want much more say in what happens to my +1 activity. I want some kind of an internal display. I want my +1 action to become the mother of all bookmarks. I want some kind of an internal dashboard.

Ultimately I want my own very personal Google. I want to be able to search though only sites I ever pressed that +1 button on.

Pressing that +1 button is the simplest of status updates for now. You are not having to write up anything. If you press that button enough times, you should have mapped out your personal interest and knowledge graphs. That is powerful.

Tech And Terrorism

Physical

Americans Are Fat



Sunday afternoon plan: free lunch at the Gurudwara near Jackson Heights. My childhood best friend's wife is Punjabi. Evening plan: Ace Hotelless than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply


Just did 1000 situps. Tech consulting interrupted.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet Reply


30 minutes of crude yoga. Feeling good.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet Reply


1000 units of tummy muscle exercises.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet Reply


Making yogurt. Nobody makes it better in NYC.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet Reply


500 pushups. Yoga next. Yoga: not easy. The mind wants to wander.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet Reply


120 minute walk. Hello Vig Bar. Happy birthday Soraya Hareez.less than a minute ago via txt Favorite Retweet Reply


Headed to the Ace Hotel for some good music this evening. But first the free lunch at the Gurudwara near Jackson Heights.less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply